/*

     This file is part of Combean.

     Combean is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify

     it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by

     the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or

     (at your option) any later version.

     Combean is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,

     but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

     MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the

     GNU General Public License for more details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

     along with Combean; if not, write to the Free Software

     Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA

 */

 /*

      * Created on 07.08.2005

  *

  */

 package net.sourceforge.combean.interfaces.mathprog.lp.model;

 import java.util.Iterator;

 import net.sourceforge.combean.interfaces.mathprog.linalg.AbstractMatrix;

 import net.sourceforge.combean.interfaces.mathprog.linalg.VectorOrientation;

 /**

  * The base class for a (matrix-like) component of a linear programming model.

  * 

  * Entries in a model component have both a local row and column index and

  * an offset id for their row and column. These offset ids are used for

  * constructing a mapping of pairs (local index, offset id) -> global index

  * within the complete linear program.

  * 

  * @author schickin

  *

  */

 public interface LPModelComponent extends AbstractMatrix {

     /**

      * Get an iterator through all row offset ids used by the component.

      * 

      * @return an iterator through all row offset ids used by the component.

      */

     public Iterator getRowOffsetIds();

     /**

      * Get an iterator through all column offset ids used by the component.

      * 

      * @return an iterator through all column offset ids used by the component.

      */

     public Iterator getColumnOffsetIds();

     /**

      * Get the orientation how the component shall be inserted into the

      * global model (either row-by-row or column-by-column).

      * 

      * @return the orientation for inserting the component into the global model

      */

     public VectorOrientation getOrientation();

 }